Ian W
Constituted crews have significant advantages as well as the potential for developing their own 'standard practices'. Perhaps a way out would be a system where a small group was constituted so crews were always drawn from the same subset.
As I remember it that sort of worked on the military with smallish crew numbers and a small number of crews. But TBH I'm really not sure how you'd begin to administer that in a large airline with, say, a company total of 4000 pilots and 10,000+ cabin crew, and with typically 400-500 pilots or more on each individual type the company operates. Each one of which will have their own requirements for days off/leave depending on their domestic situation.
There's much more isolation in the job these days than there was 20 years ago and there are fewer options for gelling socially as a team... Given the workload nobody is going to hang around at "base" for a get together on a Friday PM
, and short haul night stops ( if your company does them) are often minimum rest. Many Long haul "slips" aren't much better. Chuck in a system of management being physically remote from the "Flight Line" and communicating by e-mail rather than personal contact and it's easy to see how someone with personal problems can hide things away and escape notice for a long time. Ratchet the work up even more and it's going to be even more difficult ... thanks EASA.
BTW the idea of airline crews developing their own "standard practices" is something management are very keen on avoiding...
